


A Vision of Shadows AU (Darktail takes over the clans)

by Alku



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:33:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27619102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alku/pseuds/Alku
Summary: All is normal. The Arc is A Vision of Shadows except with a twist, I'm writing it the way I want meaning there will be things that I really wanted out of the books and characters being given more attention.
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

Alderheart trailed behind his clanmates, he felt nervous about this Gathering. Tension had been building up between the clans and ‘The Kin’. Riverclan had been acting strange about their borders and were ruder than usual. His neck fluff felt heavy and he wanted to curl up,  _ Oh why couldn’t I just hide in the medicine cat den?  _ He groaned to himself, his head drooping.

“Alderheart!” A voice called, Sparkpelt. “Hey- Are you okay?” The orange she-cat nudged his side. 

He gave her a forced smile “I’m fine Sparkpelt, just… a bit worried, that’s all.” The cherry red tom mewed “Hey, we’re here.” Alderheart said quickly, changing the subject.

The gathered cats sat on the large island and talked quietly about how the prey was doing or if it was true that there were stoats on Windclan territory. The chatting stopped as the leaders all leapt onto the tree that triumphantly stood over them.

Alderheart noted the sullen look of Onestar, the leader of Windclan and how he cast an angry look at his medicine cat, Kestrelflight. Mistystar seemed to sit up tall, chest puffed out. The gray leader seemed more…  _ swollen _ , than usual. Alderheart dismissed it.  _ Maybe she’s just having a good prey season _ . 

Bramblestar cleared his throat. “Thunderclan will begi-” His voice was cut off by a sharp scoff. “Who did that?” He stood up on the tree’s branch, causing it to sway ever so slightly. 

“I did.” Said a familiar deep mew, the crowd parted to reveal a white tom with black splotches on him. 

Breezepelt hissed at him but Nightcloud and Crowfeather stopped him with a swish of their tails, though they both looked equally angry. Breezepelt reluctantly relented, casting a glare at the villainous tom.

Darktail paid no heed to the angry warrior and turned his attention to the leaders, the moonlight causing his fur to shine and his eyes to glimmer with venom.


	2. Chapter 2

"What are you doing here Darktail?" Bramblestar mewed, his calm voice growing impatient.

"My my Bramblestar." He purred "No wonder you don't have a mate yet, so impatient." The white tom flicked his tail lazily.

"Bramblestar's my mate!" Squirrelflight growled indignantly, her fluffy tail lashing.

"A leader and his deputy? Don't you hate him having so much power over you?" Darktail raised an eyebrow "Now that I think of it, the other leader who did that ended up weak,  _ and insignificant _ ." He laughed darkly.

"Enough." Onestar mewed, his gaze narrowing.

Alderheart glanced over at the tabby. "Tell us why you've come."

Alderheart saw Squirrelflight shift on her paws, her scruff rustling as she swallowed. He felt the fur on his spine prickle and he felt like hiding under his paws, like he would as a kitten. That time had passed however, he had to focus on the Gathering.

"We'd like more territory, we have many new members." He purred "Many mouths to feed, it simply isn't fair that you greedy clan cats get to have all this territory while some of our cats starve." Darktail's eyes glimmered and he turned his gaze to Sparkpelt, who sat next to Alderheart and was bristling with unspoken rage. "What is it? Would you like to give over some territory? How about you, large fellow." He glanced over at Alderheart as if he was nothing more than an insignificant fly, he felt himself shrink.

"I- I'm a medicine cat, not... um, a warrior." He felt his voice quaver. 

Darktail turned back to the leaders. "And we'd like to have Rowanstar, his cats would like to have him pay for his ignorance." He paused thoughtfully "Preferably in blood."

"I say you can have him." Mistystar snorted, her gaze twinkling, strangely enough, when she caught sight of the tall white tom. "We have plenty of territory." 

The other leaders turned to her, shocked by her betrayal. Alderheart felt a stone cold feeling sink into the bottom of his gut.  _ This wasn't how it was supposed to go! _ He sobbed internally. Sparkpelt rested her tail on her brother's shoulder and he jolted at the touch. "Sorry..." He mewed shakily and she allowed him to lean against her shoulder. The medicine cat knew from the look in her leaf green eyes that she was feeling the same way.

"What?" Mistystar snapped as all eyes turned to her. "We don't need the territory anyway. Darktail can have it." She huffed her gray pelt flashing.

Darktail grinned, stepping forward, then leaping into the tree and taking his place next to her. 

Reedwhisker yelped, anger flashing in his eyes.

There was a collective gasp from the gathered cats. A few looked up to see if the sky would be covered.  _ Nothing _ . 

A young tom named Shadepelt stepped forward, his dark brown fur puffed up in rage. "How could you!" He yelled, "Why would you do this to us?"

Darktail stared down at him. "There's been... a change of leadership. Until my kits are born I will take Mistystar's place." 

Bramblestar gasped sharply. "You don't mean-"

"Aha! I knew there was a brain in all of that tabby fluff." Mistystar leaned into him. "Mistystar is expecting my kittens, very soon in fact, they will be born and then they will take my place when I die. And so on and so forth."

Reedwhisker gave a strangled cry as he stared up at his mother. Darktail leapt down from the tree and landed neatly beside him. He raised a claw and rammed Reedwhisker off, Reedwhisker fell to his death below, his face contorted in shock. 

"Of course for that, I have to take care of my new mate's former kit, her deputy." There was a stone cold silence as clouds began to cover the moon, as if shielding it from the horror down below. "Gathering...  _ Dismissed _ ." 


	3. Chapter 3

Twigpaw rushed after her mentor, Ivypool. “What’s going on?” The short gray she-cat yowled “Doesn’t Mistystar realize how mouse-brained this is?”

Ivypool slowed down, her voice low. “I know.” She turned to Twigpaw “Mistystar is an old crazy elder. Let’s hope she comes to her senses before everything goes to chaos.” Her ears twitched as she stared ahead, fur bristling. 

“Why can’t I talk to her? I’m part of the prophecy right? She will listen to me!” Twigpaw protested, her ears flat on the back of her head.

Her mentor snorted. “I sincerely doubt it, that old coot lost all of her smarts long before you and I were born.” Her tail lashed.

“I’m sure she has some reason Ivypool.” Thornclaw mewed calmly “However strange it might be I feel like she has a plan.”

Ivypool glanced over at Twigpaw. “Just be glad you aren’t too involved in this.” She mewed, trotting ahead.

Twigpaw let out a  _ hmph _ and glanced over at Alderheart, he seemed terrified. Sparkpelt who trotted next to him didn’t look much better, her green eyes downcast.

“Mistystar’s a foxhearted, betraying, backstabbing mousebrain!” Mousewhisker complained to Graystripe, the gray elder sighed. “And she’s only going to get worse.” 

Twigpaw felt someone nudge her side, she turned around.

“Mistystar kind of sucks.” Honeypaw mumbled “So does Darktail.” Twigpaw nodded “I hope that they don’t start something.” The white and yellow she-cat glanced up at her. 

“They seem pretty mean.” Twigpaw admitted 

“Isn’t Mistystar like 40 moons older than her?” Larkpaw cut in “ _ Gross. _ ”

The three chuckled and headed into camp, Twigpaw felt a bit lighter now. It felt as if a rock had been lifted off her shoulders.


	4. Chapter 4

_ Nothing was normal anymore in Riverclan, too many cats, too much chatter. _

Willowshine swished a tail over the reeds that covered the ground of the medicine cat den, she could hear the brutes yelling and taunting each other outside. She sighed, flitting her dull green eyes across the den. A yellow muscular body slept in the corner of the room, tail occasionally swishing and casting up dirt. Mistystar was a lovesick fool, Darktail was a greedy egodriven foxheart, Willowshine wanted them to choke on a fish bone.

Mothwing shook herself awake and noticed her former apprentice, Willowshine, muttering to herself. She snorted, fluffing up her fur. “Hey Willowshine, I had this dream that a bunch of rogues moved into the camp and began ruining everything- Oh wait.” Mothwing was irritated with how many idiot toms were in the camp. Brackenpelt, a feisty she-cat who Mothwing considered a friend had begun  _ flirting _ . Flirting! With the brutes who took over their camp! Mothwing hated it here. The yellow tabby began to groom the prickly seeds out of her pelt. 

“Could you two fishheads stop laying around and  _ help _ me?” A voice cut in, Mothwing whipped around and saw a silver tom.  _ Wasn’t his name Roach? _

“Hello Rat what can I do for you?” Mothwing mewed nonchalantly “Need some mint?”

Roach growled, showing he knew what mint did and that this was an insult. “My name’s Roach you yellow squirrel and I’ll have you know that I’m part of Darktail’s guard.” He gave a cruel proud grin.

“Yeah, yeah what do you need Rat.” She swished her tail. “Comfrey, Borage?  _ Mint? _ ” The yellow tabby felt annoyed by the silver tom and his cruel pride. 

“Mistystar has a headache. She needs herbs for it.” He huffed.

Mothwing grabbed a white flower and began to chew it into a pulp, she wrapped it in a beech leaf and slid it over. “Done. Take it over to her Rat.”

He hissed, lashing his tail. “Could you shut up? You being a medicine cat means nothing, _nothing!_ We don’t care about your weird  _ Starclan _ or whatever else you do besides laying around and being useless.”

The golden tabby’s fur puffed up “I can back my words up with my claws, can you say the same?” She stood up, towering over Roach. 

“I can fight you anyday.” He retorted, unsheathing his claws.

Mothwing lunged at him, rolling out of the medicine cat den. The large tom was surprised by the attack and clawed at her. She whacked him in the side with a heavy paw and blood gushed from his nose. He wildly batted at him and Mothwing stepped on his tail, hearing it crunch. He let out a screech of pain and anger and pounced on her. She threw him onto the ground and raised a paw, letting her claws slide out, ready to tear through the foxheart’s flesh and ending his miserable lif-

“Mothwing! What are you doing?” A voice snapped her out of her bloodlust, she turned around and saw Darktail lazily surveying the gorey scene before him. “Aren’t you supposed to heal? Not fight my cats.”

“It’s your fault for not training your cats to not be guppybrained foxhearts.” She snapped, stepping off Roach who was whimpering from the pain.

He chuckled, then turned to Roach. “As punishment for challenging a medicine cat, you must stay in the medicine cat den for a moon, you are not allowed to be out of camp to hunt, fight or train.” Roach flinched.

Mothwing sighed “Come on Rat, let’s just go and heal you.” She lashed her tail, it was going to be a long moon. 

“What did you do to him?” A shrill voice shrieked, Willowshine stared at them in horror, her fluffy fur bristling with shock.

“He got what was coming for him.” Mothwing grabbed a few herbs and began to dress the wound. “Go to sleep Willowshine, no use in staying up.” The two stayed up in shifts to treat all of the cats who came in with thorns in their paws or even ears ripped off.


End file.
